101 ways to save money

Are you looking for money to invest?

Here are tips on how to free up money from your present budget so that you have some to invest.

By: SHAIK BILAL AHMED 24-E 13325580164

Around the House

1. 2. 3. 4. Use GNLD washing soaps. They work out much cheaper than the stuff we buy from Uchumi. If you have a computer, recycle printing paper and change the printing default to Draft so as to half the costs of printing and paper. Keep all your loose coins in a big sealed tin for a year (place it near the door so you can empty your pockets when you enter the hse). . . youll be surprised how much it adds up to. Recycle birthday and Christmas cards (cards are very expensive and they all end up in the dustbin anyway). Cut out the pictures and get the kids to re-make them into home made cards and write the message. Everyone will think they are really cute. Buy your clothing items (for adults) once every 5 yrs. Save up the money in an investment fund over that time so that it can first work for you before you spend it. Buy the bulk of your clothes& shoes Mitumba. Hold a yard sale with 10 other families and sell off all you do not need (kids clothes, books, etc) Build a small incinerator in your back yard to save on dustbin collection fees. Alternatively take the garbage out to a garbage dump (not roadside) on your daily runs. Reduce security costs by buying a siren and pilot light instead of paying for back-up alarm. Crooks dont know the difference once the alarm rings (also pinch a Securicor sign for your gate!) Keep a small house pet dog. Its fun, makes an ideal birthday present for your kid, and is a good alarm that hardly eats anything. Make all birthday, anniversary, Christmas gifts practical household or necessary clothing items. If you are buying a kettle - kill 2 birds with one stone and give it to your wife as a birthday present, or give your daughter a kitten (deals with the rats, but she doesnt know that does she). Have a day househelp instead of a full-time househelp. They are generally more satisfied with their work because they have a social life beyond your home, and their absence from the home in the evening means you have to simplify your life, which cuts down costs. Pick up no-cost exercise (jogging, walking, home-workouts, etc) instead of gym fees.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

12.

13.

Kitchen
14. Save gas by sterilizing drinking water using sunlight instead of boiling leave the water in a plastic bottle (not the blue types) for 1 hr. Sunlight naturally kills off the bacteria. Learned this from the missionary community. If you have a backyard, start a compost heap for fertilizer. Keep 3 kitchen bins one for ORGANIC veg, paper & leftover waste, the second for PLASTICS, and the third for GLASS. Everything organic can go into the compost heap. Grow your own veggies a small patch with a compost heap can feed a family.

15.

16.

Car and Transport

17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Buy your fuel at Mobil they give a free lux soap for every 1,000/= fuel Cut down travel with your car by 50% - make only absolutely necessary trips. Go with your car to the nearest shopping center, leave it there and take a Metro into town. Car pool with a neighbor saves fuel costs by 30 40% Plan your trips to the shops around your weekly circuit, ie shop only at those shops that fall on your natural route do not go out of your way for a task. This way there is no extra fuel cost for the trip. Avoid traffic jams like the plague- they waste a lot of petrol. Go to the office/home a little early or late to avoid the jam. Do not overspeed (60 Kph). The faster you go, the more fuel consumed per km.

24. 25.

26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31.

Avoid engine wear and tear - never rev a cold engine. Let the engine warm up for a minute of two before you drive off on a cold morning. Fix a car problem immediately it appears (eg shock absorbers). Waiting till its serious enough to warrant attention often impacts other parts causing new problems that will cost you more (eg wears out the springs). The cheapest time to repair is immediately. Learn to do a basic service yourself (oil change, filter, etc).Its not that hard. Save bigger jobs for the mechanic. Give neighbors a lift into town daily for a small fee. Move closer to the kids school to save fuel, or move the kids to a school closer to home. One day a week give your car a Sabbath. Hire out your car between 8:30 am 3:30 pm when you dont need it . . . it could earn enough to pay for itself. It may even earn enough to give you a driver (and then you can hire it out in the evenings as well). Set a limit on how much mileage you allow yourself to cover per week. Once that limit is reached, use other means of transport, or stay at home.

Monthly shopping & supplies

32. Buy your annual supplies (dry products like toilet paper, sprays, soaps, etc) once a year in January buying in bulk gets better prices, and saves you the monthly cost increases (ever noticed how everything has gone up by 2 3 shs each month . . . adds up quickly so you could save a ton by buying everything in Jan and avoiding inflation). The trick however is not to overuse your supply and run out early pack things in 1 month cartons and dont open the next till the beginning of the month. Get together with several families and buy things together in bulk (supplies, meat, etc) Get together with several families buy a cow, slaughter and share the meat. This reduces the cost per kilo to half the butcher price. Dont stop at the shops for little household items . . . keep a shopping list to fill out once a month at the super market. Kiosk shopping is much more expensive than the supermarket so youll be surprised how much you can actually save by not going to the kiosk. It also curbs the desire to instantly fill any felt need for an item. Stretch till the end of the month and do without many of those small shopping items. Never shop with a credit card (or ATM debit card). It has been shown that people who shop with cards tend to purchase 30% more goods than if they shop cash! (Which is why the supermarkets work so hard to get you to use a card). Dont rush your shopping. Rushing is often at the cost of good judgement on items. After you fill your grocery cart transfer all the things to a second cart and ask yourself Do I really need this? before going to the counter. Dont go window-shopping it creates desire, and dont pop into the supermarket . . . you will inevitably spot something you absolutely need. Carry only what you need daily in your pocket . . . extra money (just in case I need it) will always find something to buy! Infact see how long you can go without breaking down that note in your pocket. Have you ever noticed how quickly it disappears like mist once it is broken? Buy inexpensive no-name brands in the shops if quality is the same. DO NOT buy brand names (Sanyo, Sony, Lux, Nivia, etc) otherwise you are paying for the name, not the product. The old idea that its better to buy an expensive product that will last longer is not true except for a small no. of very sophisticated professional electronic equipment. Its not even true for cars. Avoid fancy packaged items (kids go for the colorful box, not the item). A quarter of the cost of the item is the cost of the packet plus printing! So the more fancy, the more expensive. For the same reason avoid buying small packets of products because the smaller the packet, the more the cost of packaging and printing (this is why inflation is higher at the bottom among the poor because they

33. 34. 35.

36.

37.

38. 39.

40.

41.

42. 43. 44.

always buy small packets which inevitably cost more). If you can - avoid packaged goods altogether (buy beans at the market instead of Uchumi) Do your own home repairs/house painting (or find a friend who can) . . . its not that hard. Buy good supplies of green groceries when you travel out of the city (a sack of potatoes, beans, charcoal, etc). They cost less because you cut out the middlemen. Keep a comparison price list of costs when you shop in the supermarket. Remember they deflate the price on common items so that they seem cheap, but they inflate the prices on all other items so they can recoup their losses. So beat them at their game!!!

At work.
45. 46. Dont buy a copy of the daily papers . . . the costs add up quickly. Read the office copy or listen to the radio for the days news. Carry a packed lunch to the office. It is much, much cheaper (and healthier) than a snack from the shop next door.

Electricity
47. 48. 49. 50. 51. Use energy saving bulbs they save tons on the electricity bills Determine the exact amount of light you need in a space and get the right bulb. Having the wrong rating (100 W) at the wrong place increases your power bill. Reduce the number of security lights you have on at night Install a low wattage movement sensor light instead of security lights. This way it only comes on when it senses movement. Switch off light when not in use BUT NOTE : the yellow light bulbs consume 5 minutes worth of electricity when switched on . . . so if you are leaving a room for less than 5 minutes leave the light on. Tube light consume 15 minutes worth of electricity when switched on leave them on if you are away for less than 15 minutes. Set the boiler thermostat to heat water to body temperature (not hot). You can make huge savings here. Retire the kitchen kettle and save huge costs by not heating water on demand for little kitchen tasks. If you must have a kettle, then keep a thermos flask next to it so that any left-over hot water is not wasted. Give up the microwave microwaves encourage higher consumption of electricity as we often remove frozen things directly from the fridge to the microwave, instead of letting them thaw overnight. Get a fridge with a lock open the fridge only twice a day hence force people to plan things to thaw well in advance. This saves on how much work the fridge has to do to cool down again after opening. When you use the oven bake enough at one go to fill the oven dont waste electricity by baking too little. Switch off the mains from 6 am to 6 pm each day except weekends. Even when it seems you are not using electricity, there are a lot of little gadgets that are nibbling away at your money (fridge, video, TV, stereo, clocks, lights switched on and off needlessly, etc theyre all off, but they still consume quietly in the background a music system, TV, Video on standby consumes 7 w per hr).

52. 53. 54. 55.

56. 57. 58.

Water
59. Conserve water by how you shower, wash your hands/body or brush your teeth DO NOT leave the tap running while you soap up or brush your teeth. Teach the kids to brush with one glass of water..

60.

61. 62.

63.

Dont use expensive toilet sprays keep a matchbox in the toilet and burn a match instead of spraying the air for some reason it works very well (watch out with kids you dont want to burn your house down in an attempt to save 10/=). If you must use a spray buy GNLD spray a bottle lasts for 1 yr . . . and if you first dilute it into 2 bottles it lasts 2 yrs. Amazing! Conserve water by reducing the amount used by the toilet when you flash place a big plastic bottle filled with water in the cistern to reduce the amount of water it takes to fill the cistern. If you build or ever have to replace your cistern, look for one designed for low water usage some types use even half the normal amount. Put in smaller boilers so there is no hot water left in the boiler after showering. Alternatively have the family wash at around the same time on one boiler load of water. To reduce the cost of heating even more, install an overhead instant heater and disconnect the main boiler.

Food
64. Make sure the gas flame does not go to the edge of the sufuria while cooking any flame over the edge is totally wasted. Therefore use wide sufurias to ensure as much of the heat is transferred into the cooking and not lost over the edge. Stainless steel sufurias absorb heat more easily while cooking (but can char the food). Use them to boil things like water. Eat meat only once or twice a week your body does not need much protein meat intake. Eat lean pork instead of beef or chicken. Its much cheaper, and surprisingly lean pork has the least fat of all meat. Supplement your protein intake with beans they have high protein and are VERY healthy. If you have gas problems with them then dont cook them with the same water you soaked them in. If you like meat a lot then eat at your friends house a lot . . . and go for the occasional company dinner, wedding or Nyam-Chom plot. Cook meals in bulk when you cook make 2 3 meals more than you need and place in freezer most thing freeze well (chapatis, rice, meat, githeri, etc). Breakfast (bread, butter, jam, tea, sugar, cereals, sausage, etc) is often the most expensive meal of the day, so eat ugali or githeri for breakfast instead. A good heavy meal means you wont even need lunch, thus saving in 2 ways. Avoid restaurants and packaged food (snacks, cakes, etc) as this sort of food is expensive and is rarely healthy. Eat fruit instead. Only visit restaurants when someone else wants to take you out (encourage them). Eat a staple meal for lunch or dinner daily (eg ugali & Sukuma 6 days a week. It is not necessary to have wide variety which actually increases your costs. One meal a week do something special that the family enjoys, but dont blow your budget and hence lose the value of this. If your job allows it, get the variety from business dinners and get-togethers on someone elses budget. Amazingly its a fact that the people in Kibera eat a much healthier diet than the people in Runda, because they eat a staple meal, good for the body, without all the junk and sugar that kills the rich. Steam vegetables in the micro (cooked only 60% to retain nutrients). Cooking them with gas, or overcooking, costs more money. Learn to cook (and bake) more meals with the Micro saves on fuel as there is no heat wastage (unlike gas). Serve food on the plate in set portions. Reduce the amount of food per plate the way hotels do by spreading it out and putting green nothings called garnishing. Use smaller plates. Most people (especially adults) overeat. So avoid overfeeding (even kids). This also saves on washup time, water, work, soap, etc (but goes against our Africanness to serve in abundance and waste food if necessary so as to make a good impression). Eat only local, in-season fruits, and not expensive, imported off season fruits (often tasteless). Remember that imported fruit, because of all the processing and handling, freezing and transportation

65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71.

72.

73.

74.

75.

76.

77. 78. 79.

it goes thru before getting to the supermarket, often has no nutritional vitamin value left, even though it looks so good. Youre buying the looks! Cut out packaged fruit juices, sodas and squashes from your shopping they have little nutritional value left. Avoid imported supermarket products where you have a choice of local ones. Buy what products you can from the producers and cut out the middle man if possible. Fresh milk, vegetables, honey, pork, chicken, etc are all easily available at cheaper prices from the farms within Nairobi (especially from the Catholic communities).

Others
80. 81. Sell off any clothing item you have not worn in 6 months. Sell off any household items you dont need or use (wedding gifts, extra clocks, sofas, dinner sets you never use, etc). Most homes are too cluttered with needless stuff that deteriorates before being thrown out after 10 yrs. Sell these to release funds for loan repayments. Sell off your wedding dress (or at least hire it out). When feeling unwell, visit a registered Pharmacist first before going to see a doctor . . . they could save you consultation fees (and long waits). When buying medicine ask for generics. They may cost less than half the price of brand names. Move to a cheaper house. Move the kids to cheaper schools. Sell off dormant plots, car, etc to pay back high interest loans. If you cant sell, hire them out and turn them into assets. Pay off your high interest debt first. If you have a loan with 15% interest, paying it off ASAP saves you 15% per annum. Paying off high interest loans first is actually one of the best investments financially. You dont get any actual money into your pocket, but you save having to take money out of your pocket to finance that 15%. Commit to bargain shop at secondhand garden sales (expatriate leaving) or at Sunshine Boutique. You can furnish you whole house, find all appliances, etc at throwaway prices at such sales. Unless your mobile is office supplied dispose of it you can actually survive without one! Youll be surprised how much money you save, and how many calls you dont need to make if you have to use a pay-phone. Even SMS adds up quite quickly (how did we ever survive without these expensive gadgets?). Alternatively discipline your use of the mobile (500/= per month?) Remember convenience costs (instant telephoning, instant transport, instant music, instant TV variety, instant e-mail, instant meals, etc), so do away with some of the convenience to save costs. Run one bank account only. Many people end up paying ledger fees of 650/= per month for 2 - 3 accounts that mostly hover above zero. Dont be conned by the new MOVE accounts of 800/= ledger fees flat per month (9,600/= per year). Keep your money in a Barclays Saving Account and maintain the minimum balance of 20,000/= as an emergency fund. If you maintain the minimum balance you pay ZERO per year for ledger fees. Or use a SCB account - minimum balance of 50,000/= and no ledger fees. (Note Barclays Current account charge irrespective of deposits, but Standard do not charge ledger fees on Current accounts if you maintain the minimum of 100,000/=, which can be your 2 3 month emergency fund anyway. With both banks take an ATM card because they charge heavily for counter withdrawal. Barclays and Standard also have the advantage of allowing you to operate your account from any branch and from multiple ATM, plus the Standard Electron Visa ATM card actually works overseas). Avoid Standing Orders and Bankers Cheques use a cheque instead, or deposit money directly into the account. For family holidays with the kids go camping instead. The kids consider it fun, and you carry the food you would have eaten at home. Its the cheapest form of holiday making. When you want a holiday at the coast exchange houses with a family that lives at the coast. Even exchange kitchens. That way the cost of the holiday is only the travel costs down.

82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89.

90. 91.

92.

93. 94.

95. 96. 97. 98.

99.

100.

101.

Furnish your house with rustic African deco. An African lampshade costs 50/= as opposed to imported 800/=. Use iron-wrought furniture. Beds, chairs, dining tables, etc are all much cheaper than the roadside juakali wood products. Make curtains using plain white sheets with a colorful 6 inch border strip on the side. Much cheaper than buying curtain material. Remember Plan B (the last minute substitute plot) always costs more than Plan A (the original plot that failed), so avoid Plan B plots. If you bounce at a friends place, go back home, dont go off to the movies to compensate. Learn to entertain yourself inexpensively video hires, concerts, films, nyama-choma plots, magazines, journals, novels all cost tons of money, and are sometimes purchased on the spur of the moment. Instead cultivate inexpensive ways to entertain yourself (radio, some TV, family reading, jigsaw puzzles, borrowing friends videos, walks, conversation with a friend, etc). Buy your magazines and reading materials from 2nd hand shops (theres a good one at Yaya) or second hand street vendors selling last years Readers Digest . . . or borrow from a friend after they are done with theirs. Attend auctions. Youd be surprised how cheaply you can pick up valuable items for your home or office.

Not everything above applies to everyone, but out of the 101 you might find 20 ideas that work for you and reduce your budget.